PDF Column selection in OS X

Command-option-select:

Macintouch: Mac OS X 10.4.6

David Barnett

If you need to select a column of text from a PDF you can do this by holding down the and keys while dragging the selection in either Preview or Adobe Reader. This trick also works in TextEdit, Mail and Stickies. This is the same convention that is used in Alpha.

I suspect it is a feature of Cocoa applications using the standard text window and PDF handling.

Yahoo! FareChase: bargains in travel

A NYT report on Yahoo's integration of a travel search into their general search utility was the first I'd heard of: Yahoo! FareChase Tools. They sound pretty interesting. I like the Yahoo Widgets integration; maybe it's time to take a more serious look at all of those Widgets (which started out on OS X).

Pacifist is back

ExtraBITS notes Pacifist has been updated. I thought this essential OS X utility had been retired. Great to here it's back, my old Pacifist couldn't parse some of the newer packages. I won't mind paying if I'm due, but I'm probably convered by my old license.

OS X Safe Boot: easiest way to repair disk (fsck replacement)

It's oddly hard to find a clear explanation of what safe boot does, and how it compares to repairs using disk utility (boot DVD) or fsck:

Care and Feeding of Panther

... Under Jaguar, you could run an FSCK from here to manually fix system problems (see the earlier article 'Care and Feeding of Jaguar' if you are running any of the various iterations of Jaguar 10.2.x). Unfortunately, with the introduction of Panther, Apple included a feature called 'Journaling.' Journaling is a system that keeps track of your file and directory information. If something goes wrong, your system might be able to be reconstructed from the 'journaled' information collected prior to the crash. It's actually a pretty cool feature, and it may keep you from ever even noticing that your system had severe problems and fixed them!

The unfortunate part is that this journaling behavior also makes the old Single User Mode FSCK maneuver unworkable. You can force the FSCK in Single User Mode with a little extra code, but you are quite likely to encounter erroneous error messages such that the system seems to have problems but really doesn't. The FSCK routine may not give you a clear idea of whether or not your system is actually fixed.

Luckily, there's a better way to do this. If you reboot your system into what is called a 'Safe Boot' (by holding down the Shift key after the 'bong' like the old Disable Extensions in OS 9), you will see the words Safe Boot in the loading box. When you boot into Safe Boot, Panther automatically runs a complete FSCK during the load process. It may be a slow boot into Safe Boot, because the FSCK running in the process takes quite a long time. It may even be necessary to reboot and run Safe Boot a couple of times, since FSCK may fix one thing one time and then find yet another thing the second time.

It's particularly important to run this Safe Boot FSCK process if your system has had a total lockout like a ten-minute spinning pizza. If you have had to force re-boot your system without shutting it down properly, it is quite likely that certain temp files have gotten corrupted. This may not show up as a problem today, but a week from now, you could get really nasty behavior and even unexplained crashing. Save yourself a little trouble and quickly run Safe Boot if this happens to you.

Despite running a journaled system I do get minor errors on occasion. I think it's worth doing this after major system updates as a maintenance step.

All that google does -- one search page

Phil Bradley sent me to this one. A set of links that maps out Google's many activities: Simply Google

Aperture 1.1 bug: unsupported format

Uh-oh. This problem is still an issue in Aperture 1.1:

Aperture: Metadata import/export issues (IPTC, keywords, EXIF)

Issue: Aperture won't import certain files with added metadata
Under certain circumstances with certain cameras, Aperture may not be able to import files which have had metadata added by Photo Mechanic or similar applications. Sometimes the file may import but then result in an 'unsupported format' message.

This sounds like a problem I've had with PictureSync. I know GraphicConverter also rewrites EXIF headers, I wonder if it's vulnerable to this problem.

Google Calendar: No Safari, no sync?

Google Calendar does not support Safari.

I don't see a way to sync with iSync -- but maybe someone will build it.

Official Google Blog: It's about time

... integrated with Gmail so you can add events mentioned in messages to your calendar with just one click.
.... simple to see calendars from your friends and family, or calendars you find with the built-in calendar search tool, right next to your own calendar. You can choose to share as much or as little of your own calendar, too.
.... You can turn any event on your calendar into an invitation just by adding the email addresses of your guests. They can see and respond to your invitation, whether or not they use Google Calendar themselves.
... Event reminders by email and text message to your mobile phone
... supports the iCal standard
... can add customized Google Calendar event reminder buttons to their pages, letting visitors quickly add copies of events to their calendars.

The lack of Safari support is disappointing, but as I recall Gmail started out without it as well.